GREEN ENERGY SLOW GOING FOR IMPERIAL VALLEY UTILITY

Sunshine-drenched Imperial Valley has become a staging ground for the greening of San Diego’s energy supply.

The valley’s local customer-owned utility, however, has been playing catch-up when it comes to providing more electricity from sources other than fossil fuels and nuclear reactors, according to a report published Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Imperial Irrigation District earned a “false start” mark on its progress toward state goals for the delivery of renewable energy, finishing second-to-last among the state’s 10 largest publicly owned utilities. The utility also was judged on whether its investments have stimulated new development of renewable energy sources, explained Laura Wisland, a senior energy analyst with the advocacy group for clean energy.

The report offered a snapshot of electricity sources at the end of 2010, when the district’s only renewable energy came from small-scale hydroelectric units built along irrigation canals from the 1930s to the 1980s. Hydro power accounted for 8 percent of retail electricity deliveries. “Those facilities have been generating electricity for a very long time,” Wisland said. “They are not helping push the ball forward.”

She acknowledged progress since 2010, as the district with more than 145,000 customers added contracts for biomass, solar and geothermal power.

One of those projects, a 23-megawatt solar power plant in Niland, began delivering electricity last month, said Belen Valenzuela, an assistant manager for the irrigation district’s resource planning.

That and other contracts put the district nearly on track for the first of three renewable-energy deadlines for publicly owned utilities in 2013, she said. All retail electricity providers are required to provide 33 percent of electricity through renewable generation sources by 2020.

The Imperial Irrigation District faces distinct technical and cost-savings challenges. The utility serves an area with acute unemployment and limited household incomes. Renewable energy typically costs about three times the current going rate for natural gas generation, at peak-demand prices per kilowatt hour, Valenzuela explained. Meanwhile, electricity demand doubles during the sweltering-hot summer months in the arid, low-altitude desert valley.

To contend with that upswing, a contract with the newly opened Hudson Ranch geothermal plant on the Salton Sea provides 10 megawatts in winter months and 40 megawatts of capacity during summer.

While the Union of Concerned Scientists has advocated long-term contracts that avoid price spikes and spur new development, Valenzuela said the Imperial Irrigation District has preferred to slowly pick and chose to match its power needs and ratepayers’ means.

“There’s also a price for going long on green,” she said. “You want to get there, but you want to be careful to not get there too fast because there’s a definite rate increase for the customer.”

Morgan Lee • U-T

EPA to review mercury rule for coal plants

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it will review rules to cut mercury and other pollution from new coal plants after the industry complained that the standards are unattainable. The reconsideration, which will affect five power stations planned for construction, will be completed by March, the agency said Friday. The changes won’t change the requirements the EPA issued in December for existing coal-fired plants.

The EPA’s rule, estimated to cost $9.6 billion when implemented, would cap pollution of mercury, air toxics and particulate matter released from new coal plants. It is the first rule of its kind for such plants.

Lobbyists for power producers complained that the standards under the so-called MATS rule for new plants were so tight that no operator could comply, and the levels of pollution couldn’t even be tested. The EPA said it was reacting to information that it received after the rule was issued in December. The agency issued separate standards for existing plants. Most of the 1,100 U.S. plants already comply with the rules for existing facilities, the EPA said when the rule was issued.